A long-running crisis over inmate safety and transparency in Antigua and Barbuda’s prison system has intensified, after advocacy group Justice Now confirmed that a recent leadership shakeup at His Majesty’s Prison has done nothing to resolve longstanding grievances over preventable inmate deaths and the mistreatment of vulnerable detainees.
The overhaul came after former superintendent Colonel Trevor Pennyfeather moved onto pre-retirement leave, pushed out amid growing public and official scrutiny of harsh, unsafe conditions inside the facility. In his place, Jermaine Anthony has stepped into the role of Acting Superintendent to lead the prison. But according to Justice Now, this top-level personnel change is little more than a cosmetic adjustment that fails to tackle the systemic flaws endangering prisoners across the country.
For Khalid Shabazz, a Justice Now spokesperson who lost his son while the young man was in custody, the leadership shift offers no comfort to grieving families like his own. Shabazz shared with *Observer AM* that the change has done nothing to ease the uncertainty and anger his family has felt since his son’s death, noting that a formal coroner’s inquest into the fatality has yet to even be scheduled.
Beyond the unresolved case of Shabazz’s son, Justice Now has highlighted two major ongoing failures in the prison system that demand urgent systemic reform, not just leadership swaps. One critical issue the group emphasizes is the inappropriate detention of mentally ill prisoners: many detainees who require specialized psychiatric care at the Clarevue Psychiatric Hospital are instead held in general prison cells, where they cannot access the life-sustaining treatment they need.
The advocacy group is also demanding far broader accountability for the string of unexplained and preventable deaths in custody. To push for these changes, Justice Now has called for the immediate resignation of Attorney General Sir Steadroy “Cutie” Benjamin, arguing that senior leadership must take responsibility for the ongoing crisis.
To amplify their demands for full transparency, meaningful reform and accountability for all deaths in custody, Justice Now has organized a peaceful public demonstration set to take place on September 24. The protest will be held outside Police Headquarters on American Road, kicking off at 4 p.m. local time, marking a public show of force from grieving families and activists refusing to accept incremental, surface-level changes to a broken system.